Did you know that Americans throw out over 33 million tons of food every year. In fact, over 40% of the food in the United States gets thrown out! What a staggering statistic! In today's episode we are going discussing some simple ways that we can cut down on food waste as homemakers. In case you missed it, you can listen to the last episode here: Episode #009: How to Make a Digital Home Management Binder Using Evernote.

When I think about the millions of people around the world who are starving, these statistics make me so sad! And of course, I'm guilty of food waste as well. When I throw out food because I made too much, or didn't plan out the food I had out very well, then I am wasting valuable resources that God has given me! I try to cut down on throwing things out anyway, but the question Melody asked in today's episode has encouraged me to try even harder and get more creative about not wasting food while still keeping our meals interesting and yummy.

This episode is going to be a little different. Instead of interviewing another blogger, I am going to be answering one of YOUR questions right here on the podcast. If you have a question to ask, scroll down to the bottom and leave me a voicemail and I'll try to answer it on a future episode!

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In This Episode, You Will Learn:

Statistics on food waste in the United States

How this is a waste of the resources God has given us as homemakers

4 ways we can learn to eliminate food waste

Creative meal planning options for using leftovers

4 meal planning websites to try out

[Tweet "We throw out 33 million+ tons of food every year! This has a powerful impact on my homemaking."]

Links & Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

Homemaking Foundations Podcast on iTunes

The Ugly Truth About Food Waste in America - NPR

Americans Throw Out More Food Than Plastic, Paper, Metal, and Glass - The Washington Post

HF #6: Freezer Cooking & My Homemaking

Recipes mentioned in this episode:

The Best Whole Chicken in the Crockpot recipe from 100 Days of Real Food

Overnight Chicken Stock in the Crockpot from 100 Days of Real Food

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup from 100 Days of Real Food

Meal Planning Services mentioned in this episode:

Build a Menu - Use coupon code: SaveMeMoney to try out your first month for only $4!!

Once a Month Meals - My favorite site for Freezer Cooking

eMeals.com

PlantoEat.com

4 Essential Habits of Healthy Families free eCourse (Hurry - you only have until 9/6 to sign up for this!)

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Pssst: Did you notice a pattern with my recipes above? If you want to find more real food, kid friendly, easy meals, then check out of my very favorite cookbooks: 100 Days of Real Food!

Resource of the week:

4 Essential Habits of Healthy Families free eCourse

This week I want to highlight a free resource that's available for only one week! It's called the 4 Essential Habits of Healthy Families audio course and you can sign up for it for FREE until this Sunday, September 6th! This free audio course takes you through 4 healthy habits that every family should work on. I just got done listening through the course and it was fabulous! It's a quick course, with each session around 30 minutes long and it was so encouraging!! It takes you through the importance of getting enough sleep, staying fit and finding the time to exercise, making meals from scratch, and using natural remedies. And in fact, during the making meals from scratch episode, they mention some ideas for not wasting food!